Colorado skier felt life fading during 3 hours buried in avalanche

WALDEN, CO - MARCH 27: Sam McCloskey and Andrew Maddox pose for a portrait at the site of a recent avalanche rescue just off of Cameron Pass on Highway 14 between Walden and Fort Collins. Alex White was buried for three hours earlier this month. He survived the slide after McCloskey and Maddox rode treacherous terrain on snowmobiles to uncover him. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

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Entombed in snow for more than three hours, unable to wiggle even a finger, Alex White felt his life slipping away. He thought of his family. His friend somewhere nearby and likely in the same trouble. His girlfriend. His studies.

"The last thing I remember thinking was that I was going to die there, honestly," he said. "And aside from a few bursts of panic, it was really kind of peaceful."

March 2 was a cloudless Saturday, as pals White, Joe Philpott, Kylie Nulty and Toby Kraft geared up for backcountry turns on Cameron Pass in northern Colorado.

White, a 24-year-old first-year University of Colorado law student, was riding a new pair of Line Motherships, a wide ski built for powder. Philpott, a 27-year-old banjo-plucking poet, artist and smokejumper, had a new pair of Anvil skis. He designed the graphics on the skis that were forged by his big brother Jim, who founded Anvil in Durango, their hometown.a